Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-04-20
For the Dispatch. !
An Appeal from the Country People
TO the Debt Comm ission.


Living in the quiet seclusion OF the
country, surrounded by plain men
brought up under the fashioned
doctrine that the true test of q gentle
man is that of q man
"Who, though he promises to his loss,
Yet makes that promise good"
l feel that a few words may not be out
of place to the debt commission. We
ask you, gentlemen, not to approach
this question in any narrow or partisan
spirit. You are about to make record
which will live in the archives of his
tory, and to a great extent the prosper
ity of your State depends upon your
action. Neither one of the great parties
of the country is without blame as to
the treatment Of this question. Both
have made it mere football
to be used for selfish purposes,
as occasion required. Both have
adopted different and inconsistent plat
forms which were mere political spring
boards, from which politicians leaped
into office and power, and these plat
forms suhserved well the purposes for
which they were made. But there are
many plain, honest people in the land
who have made up their minds that
this thing must stop, and they wish you
to avail yourself of the golden oppor-
tunity now offered you to rid the State
of this intOlerable burden. 1t will be
eminently proper in you toplead and to
prove the poverty Of Virginia, and to
ask on this account an honorable and
proper concession at the hands of the
bondholders. Tell them that Virginia,
like William E. Gladstone, opposed the
policy of coercion that in doing SO by
an honorable devotion to principle her
fields were laid waste, her territory dis
membered, her property destroyed, her
currency utterly lost at one fell blow !;
her peaceful negroes turned into howl
ing politicians, as dangerous as they
were useless her cities in ruins.
PICTURE TO THEM
the war-worn Confederate soldier re-
turning to his home from Appomattox
to find the scowling looks of his once
contented slaves, to find his fields
grown up in briars and weeds, to find
his wife and children in want, to find
himself without a dollar of money and
not a human being from whom he could
get aid, to find the Federal Government
locking upon him as rebel and a
traitor, to find the world frowning upon
him because he had been the involun-
tary owner of species of property
which had been sacredly guaranteed to
him by the Constitution. to find even
the name OF his State taken away and
ruled over as a conquered province by
a military satrap-tell them that in JUS
tice and equity these considerations
ought to make them yield a part OF
their demands. Surely they will listen
to appeals Of this character, based as
they are upon stubborn facts. The
deyilish ingenuity OF the tax-receivable
coupon was the cause of all OF our
trouble-it was the poison which did
the fatal work. But it is done, and we
must meet it. How? ] answer by
making the 8 per cent.
BIDDLEREReEB COUPONS TAx-RRcEIyA-
BILE.
II necessary, go farther and make
The interest on the Riddleberger bonds
81 per cent. This, with the tax-re-
c6iyable feature added, will insure
prompt settlement. Will the revenues
of the State meet 81 per cent. bond
upon the present basis of taxation
There cannot be doubt of il, and the
tax-receivable feature cannot do us any
harm, because the coupons will always
be paid IN money. II upon examina-
lion there is any doubt as To. whether
the present revenue will pay this in
ierest, then do not hesitate to advise
the Legislature to lay
A srAMP-TAx
of 2 cents on every check, both large
and small. and the same amount upon
all bonds and notes oyer the sum of $50,
which will insure the prompt
payment without cavil or ques-
ton. This tax will in the main
fall upon the property-holders who are
able to pay, and they alone are inter
ested in the question. More than one
half Of the voters in Virginia are not
interested in this question, so far as
the payment 81 any money is concerned,
and never will be. / do not honestly
think there will really be any occasion
TO lay this stamp-tax. and only advise
it when you are convinced OF its neces-
sity. am sure from the calculation
have made that the present rate OF 40
cents on the 500 viii pay the 81 per
cent. on the debt, excluding of course
the West Virginia certificates, for which
we are not morally, though we are
legally liable. (lhis legal liability does
not extend to the bonds which were
funded under the McCulloch billy We
must as to these certificates turn the
over IN fhe Geoo~ay C.v